About the Exhibition

In North America, the art and ideology of the Old West created a distinct iconography. Permeating our culture, those images of horses, cowboys, First Nations and the iconic western landscape were rendered through a romantic filter fueled by notions of conquest, possibility and adventure. Where once there was a near singular expression of the West, now our view has expanded to include greater artistic expression and variety. The West presents the work of contemporary artists such as James Westergard, Dianne Bos, David Garneau and Kimowan McLain who are repurposing, reimagining and redefining some of this familiar iconography into compelling new statements about history, idealism, representation and what the West means to us now.